AH YES, it's the start of another year at the University of Virginia, complete with ISIS trouble, new furniture, popped collars, first years on Rugby Road and the requisite slew of racially motivated acts of violence and discrimination (not to mention the acts of violence and discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation, which certainly also occur). In the past week, five acts of racially-based hate were reported. A Lawn resident found racial epithets written on the whiteboard outside his door; four students who share an off-Grounds residence discovered racial epithets written on their door; while walking separately around Grounds and the Corner, three students were harassed by drivers who shouted racial slurs at them from their vehicles.
As usual, members of the University community will respond to these acts of discrimination by organizing countless meetings and forums and vigils and protests. And, as usual, these events will make no impact on the University's culture. After all, participation in diversity-related events is voluntary. The members of the community who attend are already concerned by the problems facing minority groups; the ignorant and bigoted members of the community are free to stay home. Diversity-related events preach to the choir -- they fail to educate the people that need educating. Furthermore, the bulk of diversity-related events are organized by students and funded by student groups. It's no wonder, therefore, that many of these events are poorly funded, scheduled, researched and promoted. After academic and social obligations, students have little time to attend diversity-related events, let alone organize them! Of course, students should play some role in educating their fellow students about diversity issues. However, we might see more coordinated and better-quality programming if professors and administrators played a greater role in the organization of diversity-related events.
Unless we radically change the way we promote appreciation for diversity here at the University, we can count on more acts of violence and discrimination in the future. I see two approaches to diversity programming that might make an impact on the entire University community. First, the University could require all students to take a mandatory diversity course. This course could help students develop the critical thinking skills necessary to defeat all unfounded biases, including their own. Conservatives will likely claim that an academic diversity requirement amounts to thought-policing because they associate the concept "diversity" with liberal politics.I argue that an academic diversity requirement that focuses primarily on the development of critical thinking skills will promote the universal good, rather than the narrow interests of any particular group. We should consider the ability to critique one's own biases as an essential life skill, just like writing. Understood as critical thinking training, an academic diversity requirement is just as important as the academic writing requirement or mandatory foreign-language classes
Assuming that the University will not establish an academic diversity requirement any time soon, student activists should change the way they promote appreciation for diversity in order to reach the entire University community. I suggest that we abandon the forums, the sustained dialogue groups, the nights of unity and all other events where student activists talk with one another about the things they already know. We need to reach the people who insist upon their ignorance as a political right.
To reach the people who won't seek out information voluntarily, we need to be loud and transgressive! We should send guys in drag to frat houses and video tape it. We should intersperse the statistics on sexual assault between songs at dance parties and bars. We should hand out condoms on move-in day. We should get hate crime information in buses, bathroom stalls, etc. The possibilities are endless here. Let's use our imaginations, put the information right in front of people's faces, and force them to think about their beliefs.
Todd Aman is a former president of the Asian Student Union and a fourth year in the College.
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